Hiring plans for Q3 in India weakest in 15 years: Survey

Hiring intentions in India for the July-September quarter of this year are the weakest since 2005, said a survey on Tuesday which found that just five per cent of employers in the country are anticipating an increase in payrolls in Q3.

Sectors which will lead the job market are likely to be the mining and construction, finance, insurance and real estate sectors, according to the "Employment Outlook Survey" by global staffing firm ManpowerGroup.

The strongest hiring pace is recorded in the medium sized organisations followed by the large sized and small sized organisations, showed the results.

From a region perspective, north and south regions indicate a more positive outlook compared to the west and east.

"Corporate India is rationalising its workforce in response to the economic slowdown. It is indeed a 'wait and watch' game as organisations are gearing up for the post lockdown era where they anticipate an upsurge in demand," Sandeep Gulati, Group Managing Director of ManpowerGroup India, said in a statement.

For the study, the ManpowerGroup interviewed over 34,000 employers in 43 countries and territories to forecast labor market activity in the July-September quarter of 2020.

In India, the survey involved nearly 700 employers across the country.

The encouraging news, however, is that India with an overall seasonally adjusted outlook of +5 per cent features among the top four countries out of 44 that projected a positive hiring trend.

The other three are Japan, China and Taiwan who have a Net Employment Outlook of +11 per cent, +3 per cent and +3 per cent respectively for Q3, 2020.

Net Employment Outlook is derived by taking the percentage of employers anticipating total employment to increase and subtracting from this the percentage expecting to see a decrease in employment at their location in the next quarter.

The most adversely impacted sector in India are the service sector and manufacturing sector with indicated hiring intentions of +4 per cent and +2 per cent respectively, said the survey, adding that when compared to the previous quarter, these sectors have a noteworthy decline of nine and seven percentage points respectively.

Employers in 35 of the 43 countries and territories surveyed by ManpowerGroup for the third quarter of 2020 expect to reduce payrolls in the period up to the end of September 2020, while payroll gains are expected in seven countries and a flat labour market is anticipated in one.

In a comparison with the second quarter of 2020, hiring prospects weaken in 42 of the 43 countries and territories, while no change is reported in one.

Employers in all 43 countries and territories report weaker hiring sentiment when compared with this time one year ago, said the survey.

The strongest hiring pace is anticipated in Japan, India, the US, China and Taiwan, while employers in Singapore, Costa Rica, Colombia, Peru and South Africa forecast the weakest labour markets, the results showed.

"India is optimistic and the government's stimulus economy package may boost the economic activities across sectors," Gulati said.